Like Heaven
by amy-oblique
Summary: It was her smell. It drove Shukaku crazy. It was like breathing in heaven... And I was holding her right now, in my arms, inhaling mouthfuls. It overpowered me. It claimed my soul...I wanted to rip her apart...HxG
1. Scent

This is my first Hina/Gaa, with a few extra pairings I sprinkled in just for the fun of it. They aren't my favorite pairing in the whole wide world, but I like Gaara and I like Hinata, so GaaHIna can't be all that bad, right…?

-AO

This chapter (and presumably, the ones that will follow) are written in separated POVs, starting with Gaara's, then Hinata, then back to Gaara to wrap it up. But it should be clear who is who (I hope)

_**Like Heaven**_

_Chapter 1: Scent_

**Gaara**

"I can't believe they're making me do this…"

"Then why do you even come? Let's just go home."

Temari rolled her emerald eyes at me; the only aspect of her appearance that we shared that hinted at our own blood relationship. She shuffled some well inked papers into a pile and forced them unceremoniously into a manilla envelope, licking her thumb for to moisten the sticky parts with so she didn't have to taste the awful envelope glue.

"That's all you've been saying since you got here…In fact, that seems to be the only thing you say when we go anywhere outside of Sunaga for anything other than a mission."

When I didn't answer, she fired the typical sarcastic "Talkative as always" line at me, and continued on to penning her name onto the front of the envelope in a flowery cursive. Temari was here for one of her precious Chuunin exam meetings; why she always _insisted_ on being apart of that idiotic practice I didn't know. I had come to take her home, thought she was sure taking her time finishing up. From the emptiness of the room I had found her in, it appeared that she was the last one still lingering behind. But that, at the moment, was the very least of my worries.

Temari looked up a little from her work.

"What's wrong?"

I must have been making a face without realizing it.

"…you smell."

She did. It was like when something…alive gets caught in the fireplace. Or when you throw flowers into a pyre. Sickly sweet, yet bitterly pungent. She looked at me like I had told her she was ugly.

"What business do you have sniffing me??"

"I can't help it. It's burning the inside of my nose."

She huffed. "I was just here with a room full of other ninjas ruder than you, and they didn't have a problem with my smell."

She poked me once, playfully in the forehead, right on my self inflicted tattoo/scar.

"You're just imagining it."

I knit my brows; she was lucky she was my sister, anyone else who touched me like that wouldn't have kept that finger for long. But that didn't mean she was out of danger yet.

"Gaara?"

"What?"

My answer was just a little more curt than usual, and she noticed my agitation.

"It's happening again, isn't it?"

I tried to keep my face neutral, but that was hard when a thousand year old demon was scrapping his nails all across my insides trying to get out. To do what, I didn't know exactly…but I had a pretty good idea. As most other people who knew about my…condition.

"No."

Her face turned uncharacteristically concerned.

"Don't lie to me, Gaara—I can hear the sand sloshing around in your gourd."

"It's not more than I can handle Temari."

I made sure the sand stopped, and nodded towards her envelope.

"Just hurry up and finish."

She looked disappointed, but did as I told her. I was a bit disappointed as well; disappointed that she smelled so horrible. Shukaku was rattling his cage trying to get out, and it kept me more alert than I ever thought humanely possible to keep him inside. All my senses were amplified a hundred fold, and everything made me want to spill blood in my state of mind.

It was when my nose became sensitive that really tipped the scaled though. I could smell the blood inside of people, feel their static-y chakra pulse in time with their hearts on my skin. The smell of it, the feel of it, even the sight of something especially red made me want to spill someone's innards all over the floor and just smear them all over the walls. It wouldn't be a stupid bet to say this was all or at least partly Shukaku's doing; making my overload my senses until I broke (hopefully for him in a crowded area) so I could fulfill his wretched, morbid desire for blood. At least, that's what I inferred he was after.

Temari though, smelled wonderful when I was like this. It was…embarrassing to say the least, and I found no pride telling her she was often the only thing keeping me from going on a rampage. So I never did, and tried to stay within her general vicinity when Shukaku was feeling…anxious.

She didn't smell like blood, like everyone else (even Kankurou). It was like…something floral, something not too sweet, something soft and gentle. It was soothing, and it seemed to numb my senses enough for me not to overload on the smell of blood and flesh. When she left for Konoha, I couldn't bring myself to sniff the clothes she left behind like some deranged stalker person, so I made the three day journey in a one and a half day sprint, Shukaku having a merry time with my head the whole way.

And then I finally get here, and she smells like barbeque? It was disappointing to say the least, but at least it incurred no feelings of bloodlust within me, as offensive as it was. I stayed with her still, hoping perhaps beyond hope that her smell would return or at least burn my nose so badly that I couldn't smell anyone else.

"There. I'll just drop this off, and then I'll show you where I'm staying."

I nearly killed her right then.

"Staying?? I thought you were just going to a meeting."

I'd heard her wrong. She had a slip of tongue. We weren't staying in horrible, population-dense Konoha where I could hurt so many more people. Where I couldn't turn the corner without being in a crowd of hundreds. Where I would probably either loose my mind from restraint or loose my hold and others would loose their lives.

"Yeah, it's a three day extravaganza."

She said the last part in a cynical loud announcer's voice. Like it was a joke. Ha ha I think I'll go shoot myself.

"Three…days?"

I kept my voice calm, kept my countenance from portraying my inner annoyance while my ears rung with Shukaku's maniacal laughter.

"Hai."

"Three…whole days?"

"No Gaara, Three quarter days. Of course three whole days!"

She said, a bit angrily. But then her mood lightened considerably and she placed her hand on my head; a rare show of affection from someone like my sister.

"I know it'll be tough for you since you don't like being around a lot of people. Thanks for coming to pick me up anyway. I'll make sure as soon as this is done we'll leave right away, alright?"

"…Fine." She smiled (crookedly, since she was so unaccustomed to anything but a competitive sneer) and a soft breeze blew through the window through her hair. Her scent was coming back…Shukaku started to calm and as he did, I felt myself mellowing out as well. My shoulders relaxed and I shrunk a few inches; I hadn't noticed how tightly wound I had been just a few seconds ago.

"C'mon, I'll drop this off and then we can go back into town."

I gave no verbal answer but I nodded and followed her into the hall. I was now sufficiently pacified; everything seemed to be falling back into better places, and I felt no urge to spill the blood of innocents.

Then from out of the corner of my eye, I saw her.

I heard her before I saw her; I sensed distress before my other senses (namely my rational mind) could react. A scream, shrill feminine. She fell past the window to my right, and without thinking, I jumped out after her. I heard Temari yell after me.

A few years ago, I would have let her fall. Others didn't concern me before I had met Uzumaki Naruto, before I became Kazekage, before I had been determined to try and make others more important to me than I was to myself. Before I had pledged to become as strong and stronger than Naruto, and defy the kanji on my forehead.

A few months ago, I would have reacted too late. I was a man, not an animal; but right now I was as close as humanly possible. Shukaku had upped my senses, and I had felt the rumble of the crumbling support above me, the increased pulse of her chakra signaling her fear, and known exactly what was going to happen.

If I hadn't been there, she would have fallen to her death. But now that I had caught her, had her in my arms, and landed safely…she was in a lot more peril.

It wasn't her fetal cringing body that did it; her arms that clung to me long after the perceived danger was passed, holding fistfuls of my cloak in small, impossibly delicate hands. It wasn't her long plum colored hair that was now flowing over her face and shoulders in disarray like flowing water. Or her small heart shaped face that shyly looked up at me with milky white eyes that filled with fear the second realization hit her features.

It was her smell. It drove Shukaku crazy. It was like breathing in heaven, the smell of her blood. And I was holding her right now, in my arms, inhaling mouthfuls. It overpowered me. It claimed my soul.

I wanted that warm wonderful scent to spill out all over the ground.

I wanted to rip her apart more than I had ever wanted anything else in my entire life.

"Ga…G-G…"

She tried to say something, but her fear crippled her speech, and her voice sounded high and tinkly like bells. But that didn't matter—it was her breath, little bursts that escaped her every time she spoke. Like gas to the flame. I was shaking. Shukaku was tearing me apart inside, it was taking everything I had not to do what I knew I wanted to do so badly it hurt. So badly it physically hurt me.

She had been better off as a broken corpse after the fall. Now that she was with me…with her maddening scent. I imagined the pulsing blood through her veins underneath that fretful layer of pale, almost translucent skin…warm and red and…

No. No. No. NO.

I placed her down, as fast as I could, Shukaku raving inside seeing his prey getting farther away. But my hands wouldn't obey. I couldn't let her go—even as she stood before me, probably scared out of her mind by now by the way I was looking at her (like I was looking at something to eat). My hands gripped her shoulders and would not relinquish their hold.

"G-gomen, Gaara-sama." Her voice was soft, low, and dainty. Surely it was meant to placate me, but her breath only made my grip on her tighter. Only made her grip on me tighter.

A horrible voice suddenly whispered in my head.

_Just take her away. She's not strong enough to fight you; take her somewhere secluded. Let me take over, Gaara-kun. Get it out of your system. _

Her eyes were pleading to me.

_I want her so badly! You never let me have any fun anymore._

Those milky eyes belonged to a Hyuuga. There would be repercussions from this kill…Perhaps even the nullification of any alliance with Konoha. Not to mention an end to any friendships Temari or Kankurou had made here.

Or any I ever hoped to have…had I dared to hope that…

_You can't tell me you can fight this. _

_I will. I will. I will, _I chanted in my head, like a mantra, softly to myself. I hoped she heard me, hoped she thought I was crazy, and fought me off and ran. But I knew she wouldn't be strong enough. And I knew what I was saying to Shukaku was a lie. I could already feel a cold darkness creping through my fingers, numbness setting in. Shukaku was winning, and if I wasn't able to do something soon, her wonderful smelling blood would be all over my hands very, very soon. Or worse…I had no idea what kind of horrible torture Shukaku had in store for this girl he'd picked out; he was trying to make her so irresistible to me I couldn't fight him.

And it was working.

_You're slipping! _He sang in his horrible craggy voice, as I felt my senses go numb. _I'll let you back your body soon, I'll only need it for a second. _Something within me smiled; undoubtably Shukaku.

I tried to hold on. Tried to keep myself from doing the unthinkable. Tried to save those milky pleading pearls from her fate…

And then it was white. And I slipped…all I heard was maniacal laughter.

_**Hinata**_

"I can't believe they're making me do this…"

"Oh, but it's not really all that bad. It's actually a bit of an honor to be chosen to be a proctor."

I followed Kiba into the roundish and large main building in Konoha, taking special care not to get my hair caught in the door again (I still wasn't used to the length, and long free-flowing hair is especially unwieldy and cumbersome).

"I'm just going to drop this off at the office, and then we can get back to training, kay?"

Kiba waved a large, important looking manila envelope, smiling with a glittering sharp smile that almost blinded me. Even if they were comparably unhygienic in most other ways, the Inuzuka clan sure knew how to keep teeth clean.

"Um…sure. I'll go with you…"

We had come to Konoha's main building to drop off some Chuunin exam papers; Kiba had been asked (meaning "forcefully drafted by Tsunade-sama") to be a proctor this year. I had, of course, gotten out of such a bothersome task (using what Kiba liked to call my "puppydog-face-no-jutsu").

…I really couldn't understand why some people like even volunteered for the Chuunin exam. All you did was sit there and watch for cheaters unless you were one of the main proctors…Shikamaru decided to do it every year for whatever reason, so I guess there was some intellectual challenge that went with it, but it was just boring for me. Not to mention the off chance I would have to confront a crowd of rowdy adolescent ninjas. Or talk to a crowd of young ninjas…Or stand in front of a crowd of younger gennins…

You can see my predicament, being the scared, pathetic excuse for a kunoichi that I was.

I followed Kiba down the hall, barely keeping up with his gait; he seemed rather eager to return to training. Akamaru trailed diligently at his heels, his now large and muscular legs gently scraping his paws on the tile, leaving scuff marks I'm sure he'd regret leaving later when Tsunade-sama found out. I walked over towards the end of the hall, where there was a balcony overlooking Konoha.

"Hey, watchit, okay? I heard some of those bricks are kind of loose; they just finished patching up the side that Gai and Kakashi broke in their last competition."

Kiba was the only one I knew bold enough (or was it just flat out disrespect?) to say our sensei's names without honorifics. At least, while they weren't around.

"Ok, I'll try not to fall."

Later, I would laugh at the irony of that statement.

Konoha stretched out for miles in front of me; I'd never had any idea how grand it looked from Central. Verdant hills, the mountains strategically guarding the village, oddly shaped houses and buildings…and green, green, green. I guess we aren't called "those who hide in the leaves" for nothing.

A strong (yet somehow childish) battle cry erupted from the hills to the east, and sent my eyes following after it. My Byakugan reacted faster than I did, and I knew who it was before I could turn my head.

"_Rasengan!!"_

"Naruto." I could feel a smile secret smile forming on my lips even as I whispered it quietly to myself. He must be training again…the breeze carried his cry as well as his training partner's loud whining towards me. "…and Shikamaru." Hee hee. With all of Naruto's energy and Shikamaru's lack thereof, it was hard to believe they could actually stand each other.

The whining got louder. I could only assume it was Naruto this time; Shikamaru had probably threatened to leave or something by now, and Naruto was begging him to stay. My smile grew a little more thinking about what I imagined was happening.

_"Naruto, that's cheating. If I can't use my Kagemane how can you use your Rasengan?"_ _Shikamaru would say, his semi-permanent sleepy-slash-annoyed expression on his face. _

_"Well that's because you're smarter. And since I can't make you stupider, I get to use Rasengan. It all balances out, see?" Naruto would smile at his own silly excuse to use his favorite technique. _

_"That makes no sense at all. I'm leaving." Shikamaru would state matter-of-factly, and start to leave. _

_"No! No! Hey-HEY come back! C'mon Shikamaru, no one else wants to train!"_

Had I been watching him for so long that his moves have become predictable? That was hard to believe, since Naruto has always been the most unpredictable ninja. In fact, his unpredictability was the only predictable thing about him (if that makes any sense at all). That and his fascination with getting stronger.

Always trying to getting stronger, aren't you? It won't be long before I can't even keep up with you anymore…Before you'll be as distant as the sun setting in the pre-night sky…

Kiba's voice also sounded distant in my constant state of mind? It didn't sound too important…

A strong breeze. I held my shoulders and leaned forward onto the balcony.

Someone close by yelled my name.

I felt the balcony shudder beneath me, and I was too shocked to react appropriately. For a second I was in a state of balance; reluctant to fall. It was the strange feeling you get when leaning on the back of your chair's legs, upright, but just about to give way to gravity. Looking back, I should have known what was going to happen. But that strange feeling scared me, and the impulse to flee was replaced by confusion. What was happening…?

"K-Kiba??"

"Hinata!! Get the hell away from there!"

I heard his footsteps coming, and heard him urge Akamaru ahead to try and pull me to safety. But even in my state, I knew they were too far down the hall to get to me. And my legs weren't working at all the way they should…one of the many downfalls of being easily scared out of your wits.

A heard the crack first. Like rock crunching, I felt the fault appear beneath my feet. Then…nothingness. I was falling. I heard someone screaming; and when horrible clarity came, I realized it was me.

Maybe it was because it wasn't my time yet. Maybe it was because it all happened so fast. Whatever the reason, all those stories about life flashing before your eyes before death turned out to be wrong, and all I could think about were facts. I was on the uppermost floor—almost at the roof. I was falling from the uppermost floor. The ground beneath me was solid; I was going to land on my legs.

If I landed sideways, they would brake. If I landed on my bottom…that too, would brake. Shatter, probably. If I landed on my feet, the impact would probably push my legs into my chest cavity and kill me. Landing on my head and arms at this point was impossible; there wasn't enough time to maneuver that way. Landing on my chest or back was not an option.

My options: suck.

My chance of survival: slim.

Dieing from a fall I could have easily avoided: sad.

There are some things money can't buy. For everything else, there's…

I felt a thud, and my eyes snapped shut.

…The ground was a bit softer than I thought it would be. It didn't feel hard like rock…it felt like…

…Muscle. I felt strong arms holding me, carrying me. I realized I was gripping tightly onto cloth, probably clothes. Clothes on a cold, hard chest. I opened my eyes just a bit, and found that I was indeed in the arms of some wonderful person who had saved my life (or at least saved me from the embarrassment of a butt-cast, if those even exist).

He (I was guessing a he, since I was not uncomfortably nestled in a pair of woman pillows) was wearing dark black clothes, and the material was strangely thin. My hands were holding bundles of this black cloth at the chest, and even as I loosened my grip a little, I could feel his skin underneath it; and it was abnormally cold. The hand holding me at the shoulder (the only one I could see without having to move very much) was paler than most. And he still hadn't said one word…Should all this have scared me? Bothered me? Alerted me to possible danger? Probably. But that wasn't really what I was thinking about right now.

What I was doing was giving my brain a second to stop sloshing around in my head. I'm Alive! No shattered butt! No legs-in-chest-cavity! No humiliating eulogy about my pathetic death!

I was saved!

My eyes flew upward to thank the face of my savior.

And then someone ripped out my heart, put it in a blender, and pressed purée.

Blood red, untamed tresses framing white skin. Dark rings that eclipsed brow-less emerald stones, that were somehow dull and perhaps even…soulless? Kanji carved onto white marble, "Love" on the morbidly beautiful face of the _scariest_ #$ing ninja in the entire world. Maybe the universe.

I was staring straight into the face of Gaara no Sabaku, the Kazekage. And he was staring back.

I was dead!

It was the most intense stare I had ever been on the receiving end of. Hiashi's disappointed scowls were nothing compared to this. To top it off, he seemed irritated, and not in a passive way. In an angry way. And from what I've been told, "Angry" Gaara meant "dead" Hinata.

"G-ga…Ga…G-g-g…"

My throat seized up. It didn't take much to scare me, and the stare he was giving me could have scared anyone. So of course I, Hinata, the most brave and courageous or konoha kunoichi, was petrified beyond (recognizable) words.

"_You_…"

His voice was low, strained, and accusatory. Like it pained him just to utter that one word to me. He was showing more emotion in his face than I'd ever seen on him, though I was fairly certain none of them were "happy" ones right now. He lowered me down, but his hands still retained a firm grip on my shoulders, they might as well have been made of stone. I was a little grateful my legs didn't give out as I was given the oppurtinity to stand.

The stare remained the same, only it seemed more confused this time. Like he couldn't figure out what to do with me. His lips formed a tight line. I braced myself for death, for the second time that hour. I wanted to look away from those emerald stones, but I was a deer in the headlights. _Hyuuga heiress killed by reigning Kazekage. Suna vs Konoha_: _This time, its war! _I could see the newspapers already.

He muttered something else in an impossibly soft yet intense and obviously pressured tone, looking more agitated by the second. I could even hear the sand in that huge gourd shift around, doing a sadistic little death dance. He couldn't want to kill me; I knew that…I just needed to calm him down…He was just angry at me for falling on him that's all…

"(G-gomen…nasai…Gaara-sama…)"

I said as loud as I could muster, which for me was just a little louder than a whisper. I was able to tear my eyes away from him for a second and twiddle with my fingers, feeling much better by doing so…until I heard a guttural growl rumble from within his chest. My eyes turned to his, and flash of some emotion flitted across his features. He seemed like a different person, and triumphant somehow. I felt a sick feeling in my stomach, and I knew this "new" Gaara could mean nothing good.

His grip got so tight. It was so fast. He leaned in, pulled my body towards him, and…

…planted the fiercest kiss in the world right on my lips.

OO (my expression, there are just no words I could give that would do a better job that this emoticon.)

I should have screamed or something, but it was all so sudden…and also all but impossible with his lips pressed decidedly on my own. It was harder than I'd often imagined my first kiss would be (obviously by my favorite fox boy), but my mind seemed unable to register that I was being kissed by intensely scary sandman person…guy.

This was some technique, I told myself.

Some soul sucking Harry Potter-- esque dementor kiss.

Nosferatu-no-jutsu! Gaara was a vampire ninja!!

Oh god! Was that…_tongue?!?!_

I'd fallen after all, and this was some kind of coma-hallucination dream. I'd wake up screaming in a few minutes, hooked up to respirators in Konoha hospital and 20 years older…

Then it was over, as abruptly as it had begun.

"_I'msorry_." It was all one word as fast as he said it, and his eyes weren't looking at me anymore; he seemed much more interested in the floor than I had ever been.

He pushed me as far away as he could. I couldn't really tell because of his apparent lack of eyebrows, but he seemed…shocked. And maybe even…embarrassed?

"GAARA!"

Temari's voice, but that too was as distant as Kiba's had been. My heart was pounding in my ears. I must have looked like a tomato. His head seemed marginally clearer than my own, as he snapped to attention at the sound of his sister's voice.

My heart beat faster. How much had she seen?

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!"

My hands went to my cheeks, and I suddenly found the floor to be very interesting indeed. Why had I never noticed? Anyway, she had seen everything!! I was almost wishing it had been the floor that greeted my landing and not Gaara's lips.

"HINATA!" Kiba's voice. Akamaru was at the end of the hallway, refusing to go down the hall near Gaara, growling in his general direction in a defensive way.

Now it's official; I wished I had died. I was dieing right now in a sense, mortified and as red as the Gaara's hair.

Kiba ran up to me and stood between my tomato self and Gaara, as if to protect me.

"What did this guy do to you??"

Temari looked like she had a few (million) questions of her own, but Gaara was already walking away, taking large steps toward the nearest exit, his agitation rolling off him in waves I didn't need my Byakugan to see. Temari ran to tail him, and soon it was just me and Kiba.

"Hinata if he did anything to hurt you…"

Kiba was speaking through sharp, clenched teeth. I knew if I told him what had happened, he would have followed Gaara, and probably done something incredibly brave (and incredibly stupid. And would have probably died for it.)

"…n-nothing. He didn't do anything that b-bad…"

Which was true. I don't know about you, but in my math "extremely uncomfortable kiss" "death" any day.

Kiba was still glaring off in Gaara's direction.

"He saved me." I added to try and calm his nerves, but it appeared to only agitate him more.

"I could've done that…if I had been a little closer." He said rather angrily, not looking at me, finding the walls as interesting as the floors had been to Gaara and I a second ago. I didn't know if he was talking about the kiss or about the catch, but by the implied pouting tone of his voice, I kind of guessed a bit at both. "Look you stay away from that guy from now on, Alright? Prolly took him everything he had not to kill you just then, I doubt he'll hold back next time."

"…but…but I don't think…"

But Kiba was already walking away, with angry determination, pulling at my arm so I wouldn't trail far behind. Akamaru was gingerly stepping alongside him, his regular playful skip-like steps reduced to cautious patters. He kept looking back towards the direction Gaara had left from, and I couldn't help but do the same.

That kiss…It didn't feel planned, or even like he wanted to do it, or…like he wanted to hurt me. I had let all the things I heard about Gaara before work me up into a frenzy, but he hadn't really look angry at me. There was something troubling him to be sure, though, other than the obvious growl and glare he was giving me, there were other signs. My byakugan, though not as well honed as Neji's, worked well enough…

…He had looked down afterward, signaling embarrassment or shame. It wasn't something he had wanted to do, not something planned. His grip on me had been tight, but I could have fought it…I could have gotten away from him before…that happened. My first kiss…stolen by Gaara of all people! Oh why hadn't I been more careful? It was my own fault for not questioning the identity of my savior, and for not noticing until now the conflict in his eyes as I should have, being a kunoichi and all…

I would have to apologize to Gaara no Sabaku. Either that, or avoid him altogether…knowing me, I'd probably be doing the latter anyway. I sighed inwardly; maybe I should carve "pathetic" onto _my_ forehead.

Still…my eyes wandered back towards the space he'd previously been standing right before Kiba pulled me around the corner. It was almost…nice. In a strange, violent kind of way. I realized what I was thinking, and my face went red again.

Either way, I would probably have to make a point to see Gaara no Sabaku again.

**Gaara**

"Gaara what happened back there?"

I was walking as fast as I could, practically gliding out of that building, trying to put as much space between me and her as I could. Shukaku was laughing louder; I couldn't hear what Temari was saying.

"You practically shoved your tongue down her throat!"

Is that all he had wanted? To make out with the Hyuuga girl? I knit my eyebrows in confusion. Is that why Temari, my own blood sister, was the only one who didn't make me go crazy with an urge I now recognized as Shukaku-lust? What made this girl so different to him?

What if I hadn't fought back when I had?

"Gaara! Answer me!"

Would he have…done something…worse to her??

I shuddered at the thought, and right now I was more mortified and troubled than I had ever been.

_You liked it. You know you did. You liked it You liked it You liked it_

_"Gaara!"_

"NO I DID NOT!"

Temari stopped dead thinking I had yelled at her, and I realized I had decided to yell out loud rather than inside my own head, like a sane crazy person. I looked away from her, waiting for her (awkward) reply.

"…I just asked if you wanted me to tell you her name. That response doesn't even make sense."

"NO I don't want her name!"

I started to sprint away before she could answer. I could never know her name. I could never let myself get within another inch of her again. Shukaku wanted to do horrible things to her, with my body. And I might not be strong enough to hold him back.

I had resolved right then and there to stay the hell away from the Hyuuga with the wonderful scent. It was better this way, for the both of us.

**to be continued (i hope ;)**

I hope they aren't too OOC for your taste…I tried giving them a little more life, and I think maybe I took to many liberties with Hinata.

Well arr and arr please, it helps me feel better about doing this rather than HW. Ciao for now-

AO


	2. Dangerous

KYAA I'm sorry it's taken longer than I said it would, but I had a bit of a writers block. plus with the holidays coming up and all…bleah but I really wish I could have had this chapter out yesterday, but unfortunately, my time machine is on the fritz…

And **Miss0made** are you getting into my notes?? ; the same day I read your comment, I realized I had the 'patent' joke in this chapter…so I didn't steal it, we just think alike, okays?

And now the semi-obligatory thanks for reviews. Thank you everyone who did, for reviewing! I'm glad you all liked it, I hope I don't disappoint you all with this long arse chapta… 

Oh yeah I forgot it in the other chappie, _but I don't own Naruto_. (So I'm sorry for those of you who were fooled.)

_**Like Heaven**_

_Chapter 2: _

**Gaara**

"And that's…pretty much what happened."

"Oh. Is that…_so_."

Temari had been mad at me the whole day for yelling at her and then running away, and it had taken me ten minutes just to get her to listen to me. Women are so hard to please…

"Yes. Pretty much."

"_Really _now…"

We were sitting in her one room apartment thing, there was only one bed, but that was fine since I didn't sleep anyway. She only used it for the time she spent at the Chuunin meetings, but it was surprisingly well furnished. There were even some dolls on her bed; one was a panda I recognized from her own room at home (one she semi-affectionately named Senor Gaa), and another I had never seen before, that kind of looked like a big awkward white amoeba with an abstract looking face. I didn't feel like asking what it was, mostly because it creeped me out (which was a feat few things, especially a stuffed toy, could accomplish).

Speaking of things that were awkward, Temari hadn't said much ever since I had told her the whole deal (even the parts about me following her to Konoha because of her smell). But she didn't seem to be angry about it; I could tell (well, everyone in a three mile radius can tell when she's angry). But there was something…malicious in the air. And I had a feeling for once it wasn't me.

"So…you are saying…_Shukaku_ was the one who made you do it." Perhaps I had imagined it, but there seemed to be a hint of sarcasm in her voice.

"Yes, I just told you that." I disliked repeating myself, and generally talking more than

I had too.

"Huh. Well that's…_interesting._" This time I definitely heard the sarcasm. But not angry sarcasm, more like mocking…

Another long pause. The white amoeba thing was staring at me. I had half a mind to turn it around towards the wall, but then I'd have to explain to her why, and I felt I'd done enough explaining today. Not to mention how absurd "_Your doll thing scares me_" would sound, especially coming from me.

"What are you gonna tell her?"

She asked me, a little too nicely, as she chewed the corners of her mouth in a weird way. I was starting to get suspicious of her.

"Nothing." I was planning on avoiding her.

Temari sent a cautious glance my way and then an evil smile broke out on her face, as she was no longer able to hide it by chewing her cheeks.

"…You know _what I think_ you should do."

I felt myself grow uneasy. I knew what was coming next…She thought I was lying to her, and making excuses to cover up my embarrassment. And she was going to make fun of me for it.

"Temari, I'm being serious—

"You should explain _everything_ to her. Tell her…" she stood up off the bed, a desperate far off look in her eyes.

"…how you are so in love with her that you couldn't help but make out with her right there on the spot!!"

I tried to glare at her as hard as I possibly could, but I knew there was no stopping her now. The only thing Temari loved more than fighting was teasing Kankurou and me (now that I had promised not to kill them). Senor Gaa was a perfect example of this fact; named after me because she thought his panda eyes looked like the dark rims around my own.

"_OH,_ Hyuuga-chan!" Temari picked up Gaa and stared lovingly into its lifeless button eyes. "I just can't control myself, I just…LURV you so MUCH!!" And to my horror, she started to pretend make-out with the poor thing.

"TEMARI!!"

"Mwah mwah mwah, _oh say you'll be mine_!"

She then embraced the bear and turned to me, her eyes aflame with her own strange brand of sibling love.

"Temari, I'm seriously going to kill you if you—

"Or, you could just glare at her all scary like and command her to be your sex slave."

Something exploded inside of me. Shukaku had liked that option…a little too well.

"Temari stop it." I said through gritted teeth.

But she wasn't listening; now she was placing Gaa on the nightstand and pointing a finger menacingly at its little forehead.

"Hyuuga woman! You are going to _have-my-babies,_ and that's all there is to it!"

Gaa gave no response. She then picked up the panda and swung it under her arm kidnapping style, and pointed now to the horizon she had imagined in her head.

"Now, make haste! _Those babies aren't going to make themselves_!!"

Temari turned to face me now, a crooked smile on her face, and pressed Gaa into my face.

"_And you wibbed Happa-wee evah aftah_." For a second, I just glared at the thing. Then I grabbed Gaa's face and threw him into the trash can.

"…_Are you quite done_?"

She seemed only _now_ to notice the fact that I was extremely angry with her.

"Awwww…Gaara _I'm sorry_."

She sat down next to me now, her soft scent now devoid of its former burn helping me calm down a bit.

"I don't want to stay here."

She paused for a second, in thought, and then sighed.

"Alright. Then we'll leave."

This surprised me. I almost thought she was being sarcastic; wouldn't be the first time today.

"…Are you serious?"

She was up already, gathering up a few more papers (as of yet un-filled out) and tossing them in the trash can while she retrieved her panda.

"Sure. I hate this paperwork anyway. I only come for the food. Konoha has really good tea and dumplings…"

That seemed an unlikely reason to make a three day journey (as in it was obviously a lie), but I let it go, not wanting to make her change her mind.

"Is it alright for you to leave?"

Temari seemed to think on it a moment, before she shrugged.

"I dunno. I'll ask the Hokage, but she's aware of your condition. And its not like they are short handed or anything this year…I bet they can let me go."

This was probably the first really decent thing Temari had ever done for me, as sad as that sounds.

"Thank you, Temari…"

She made a face.

"Ergh. That's how I know we _need _to leave. You're saying 'thank you'."

Temari made her way to the door, presumably to go talk to the Hokage like she said.

"Stay here; I'll be back in an hour or so and then we'll leave. The sooner we get back the sooner you can get back to being normal, scary Gaara."

From Temari, this was a compliment of sorts.

"Thank you."

She stuck her tongue out at me.

"You better stop that, I'm serious."

And she was gone.

**later…**

That _thing_ was staring at me.

The white poofy thing with the weird face. It was obviously handmade, you could tell since the face was lopsided in some places, the smile wasn't quite straight, and one eye was bigger than the other. It looked like some kind of creepy voodoo doll, or some oversized retarded pin cushion. Being in a room alone had never bothered me much, but being alone with this thing…it even smelled funny. It too, had that burning smell…

"You are the embodiment of everything I hate in this world." Idiocy and burning scents, to be exact. It (of course) gave no answer, and just continued to stare at me with that vacant stupid grin.

"What the hell are you supposed to be anyway?" Again, no answer. Should I be concerned with the fact that I'm talking to a doll?

"That's it." I got up and turned the thing around, screw Temari, if she asks, I'll lie.

There was name on its back. _Kumomaru_, it said. Cloud boy.

And on top of that name, there was another $$#ing face. It was smiling, too.

I left the little apartment thing, happy to be away from that stupid burnt smelling cloud, and made my way to the large gates. We were leaving anyway, right? Temari would know where I'd gone…

_**Hinata **_

****"T-Temari-san?"

I fumbled around with her name in my mouth, searching for a last name to accompany "-san", as I normally did with people I didn't know well. But I found that I didn't recall Temari or Gaara ever having a last name…how strange.

I had found her (at last) in the main building of Konoha, the same place where all this trouble began. It had been a while since then (well, maybe only a few hours since then). I had finished training with Kiba, and he had reluctantly let me go home, on the condition that I stayed away from "that creepy sand guy".

Well he never mentioned the "creepy sand sister", _right…_? So technically I was still keeping my promise…

"Yes, who is— _oh_." She turned, and stopped mid sentence once she saw it was me. Her lips curled into a sneer slash smile, and there was something decidedly evil about it that made me feel a bit uneasy.

"Oh, hello, Hinata-san. Looking for my little brother, maybe?"

I wilted considerably upon hearing this.

"No! Ah…ahh…I m-mean…_nnn_…(_maybe)_…" Good job making yourself look like an idiot, Hinata! Stupid stupid stupid…

Now Temari would probably laugh at me, and I would melt into a puddle of goo, to be swept up by the janitor-nin and put with the trash where I belonged…

"Hee hee you're turning red. The very memory of your—

"_Stop teasing Hinata, Sunako_." A low baritone voice echoed through the empty hallway, a hint of annoyance in his voice. Temari whipped around, searching for the face of the man who would so boldly disturb her fun.

"_'Sand girl'_? Just who do you think you're talking to, huh?!"

There was an exasperated sigh, like the kind an old man gives when dealing with foolish young children.

"Geez…first you come telling me you're quitting, now I find you picking on a girl two years your junior. Sometimes I wonder if you're really a woman, Temari…"

A familiar boy with a ponytail and a Chuunin vest made his way down the hall towards us, and I knew instantly who it was.

"Shikamaru-kun!" I said happily, relieved of my fate as a Hinata-goo.

"Baka-Chuunin, I outrank you now, you can't tell me to do anything." She huffed.

Temari glared at him, but there was a change in her expression, something that made all her features look a bit…softer. It was so subtle I doubt I would have caught it had I not been a Hyuuga.

"And if you wonder if I'm a woman, it's probably because I'm easily more of a man than you are, _Kumomaru_."

She spat out the last word like it was an insult, but the ends of her mouth turned up to form a crooked smile. Or was it a sneer, too? It was too subtle of a line for even my byakugan to define…

"That might be true…"Shikamaru turned to me, half smiling.

"…but that's probably because you're easily manlier than most _men_—right, Hinata?"

Temari's small smile/sneer vanished, and her face turned red.

"N-no! You're just a sorry excuse for a man—_right, Hinata_?"

"Huh??"

Now they were both looking at me, and I had become Hinata-goop.

"Well…I'm not really…ahh…there are…I don't think…"

Temari seemed to loose her patience.

"_Forget it!_"

She stormed off, taking with her my one chance for a meeting with Gaara. But I wasn't foolish enough to follow her; right now, Temari scared me worse than anything Gaara might have done to me.

"Like I care what _either of you_ think anyway…" She said 'either of you' as if it were directed at both of us, but I was pretty sure she cared about a certain someone's opinion…

Shikamaru seemed to sense it too, but he looked less worried about it than I was.

"Geez, Temari, I was only kidding!"

"_I said I don't care_!" She yelled back, even though it was kind of obvious that she did.

Shikamaru sighed again, his almond eyes still as sleepy looking as always. He glared off in her direction, but still talked to me.

"You know, she doesn't like to admit it, but Temari is very self-conscious about her femininity. I thought I could get her off your back if I made fun of her a little…"

He turned to me now, a slightly exasperated look on his face.

"And now I'm probably going to have to apologize…" He made a face at me, as if hinting at the 'troublesome' things he was probably going to do to get on Temari's good side again.

"Well, is there something you wanted, Hinata-san?"

"Um…actually…"

I turned to look off in Temari's direction, but she was long gone.

"I w-wanted to…um…ask Gaara-sama something."

I wanted to apologize, really. I hadn't been myself the whole rest of the day, thinking about what had happened over and over…admittedly, much more than I should have. He was very good looking, after all…even if it was in a scary way…I found myself getting shivery when I thought about him and that kiss, but I wasn't sure if it was for totally pure reasons anymore.

"Wow. Really? Gaara-sama?"

He looked genuinely surprised, and this surprised me too; Shikamaru usually didn't look anything except sleepy or annoyed.

"Sorry, it's just someone as shy as you, I'd figured…"

He looked like he was about to say something, but then shook his head.

"Never mind. Well if you wanted to talk to him, you better hurry up."

He started to reach into his pocket for something.

"Temari just came to…" For some reason, he seemed to smile, and then it was gone. "…tell me she was leaving."

He then pulled out a half empty pack of cigarettes, and used his mouth to pull one out.

"L-luh-LEAVING??"

It was my fault! She was leaving because Gaara wanted to leave, because he thought I was…because I hadn't…

I was going to explode. That was all there was too it; I was simply too mortified for my body to take it any longer. Gaara, the Kazekage, was leaving Konoha because of me. I had repulsed someone so entirely that they had to leave the village just to get away from me. I was a horrible, pathetic excuse for a kunoichi…no, even for a regular person, I was the apart of the very bottom tier, the dregs on the bottom of humanities teacup…

"Um…Hinata? You okay?"

I had my hands to my cheeks, feeling them burst into flames as I held them.

"Ah! I…I have…I have to c-catch them!"

Shikamaru seemed surprised again; I should get an award for being able to do so twice in one day.

"Catch them? Well, good luck if you have to get to Gaara…from what Temari said, I doubt I'd be in the village still if I were him…"

"SHE TOLD YOU???"

I exploded.

…okay not really. But I came as close as humanly possible. I had turned right into a cloud of smoke; he had lit his cigarette while I had been in my own worry world. It was a horrible smell, burning, like something alive getting thrown into a fireplace…

"Ugh! W-when did you start smoking?"

_Oh no that doesn't matter! Hinata, find Gaara! Stop him from leaving on your account or you'll never live it down!_

"Uh…well, Asuma always—

"_THAT DOESN'T MATTER_!" I yelled at Shikamaru when he started to answer, who looked totally confused (poor guy).

I ran out the building as fast as I could, activating my Byakugan as I did so. Gaara Gaara Gaara where are you where are you…

As I searched the town, my mind went crazy thinking about the things that I was sure were going to happen if I wasn't in time.

_"Hiashi-sama, your daughter single-handedly ruined all of Konoha's relation's with Sunaga."_

_"What, Hinata? That good for nothing daughter of mine! Let us shoot her!"_

_"Yay! Now I'm the Hyuuga Heir!"_

And Neji would throw a party and everyone would come except me. Because I'm dead. The end.

"There!"

I spotted him! I would be spared the bullet! He was almost at the outskirts of town, but the night crowd was slowing him down…I couldn't help but notice the fact that my byakugan was getting better, as I could even make out the love kanji on his forehead. And his brilliant fire like red hair. And his smouldering emeralds for eyes—

AHH what's _wrong_ with me today??

I sensed Kiba too, he was running after me (even though I told him I'd be fine by myself, grr). But I was a bit relieved he was coming with me, even if it was because he was going against what I had told him earlier…if I ended up doing something really bad, at least someone who was on my side would be around…not to mention the fact that I was breaking my promise to stay away from Gaara, anyway.

"Kiba-kun, I know you're there." I said to the open air as it whizzed by, and soon he was running next to me on the rooftops. I half expected him to stop me, glare at me with those wild eyes and tell me exactly why what I was doing was crazy and selfish and stupid. But he didn't.

He just sent a cautious glance my way, and then fell into the background, still trailing me.

"Do what you need to do. I won't be far behind if you need me." I heard him say, grudgingly letting me do what I wanted.

I smiled inwardly, thanking him in my heart. He was such a good friend…loyal and brave, like the dogs his family raises (its more of a compliment than it sounds, believe me ;).

OK, Gaara-sama, prepare to be apologiz-ized!

(I hope you don't kill me!)

**Gaara**

Bloodlust. I could feel it in the air; the gentle prickling of angry chakra vibrated against my skin and told me it was close. Someone was murderously angry. It put me on edge, since I hadn't been in a good fight in a while, there was something attractive about the feeling of an imminent battle. But this was not the place nor the time; I was in a town with a ninja population, and a brawl that broke out here could easily turn into a bloodbath…especially if I got involved.

But where was it coming from? I wasn't quite sure; all I knew was it was close, because I couldn't tell the general direction, so I assumed it must be in my general vicinity. I scanned the crowd with my eyes, trying to locate the source as soon as possible so I could move away. Shukaku was beginning to notice as well, and I didn't want to have to deal with him anymore than I had to today. One slip-up had been enough…

Then I saw something that made my blood run cold. A little bobbing head, with plum colored hair, making its way through the crowd, in my direction. I could catch the faintest trace of that scent in the air, and I decided it was time to leave. Maybe I would get lucky. Maybe she hadn't seen me yet. Or better, she had seen me, and was running away in the opposite direction. Maybe—

"G-Gaara-sama!"

Well, shit.

She was chasing me. She was actually trying to talk to me…

"G-gaara…I mean…Kazekage-sama…about the…I wanted to …" Her voice was tiny and tinkling even when she tried to yell above the din of the crowd. Damn it woman! Can't you see I'm trying to get away from you?? Can't you see I'm…

…not…moving? Why am I not moving?!

_Let's hear what she wants to say, yeah? _A gravelly voice tells me, condescendingly, as if I have a choice.

**I hate you**.

_Don't be such a baby. _

"…A-Apologize!"

Her voice brought me back out of my introverted conversation, and I found myself staring right into those white pearls once again. She wanted to apologize? For what?

She then bowed, something I hadn't expected at all.

"Ah…for…for being so…so foolish and…and not…"

Why she wanted to apologize for something that was obviously my own fault, I didn't have any time to care about. All I knew was that she was sure going to take her time doing it; time that was better spent with me putting as much distance between myself and her as possible.

"I…well, you…ahh…"

"_Are you here by yourself_?" I interrupted her mid-sentence. It was vital to her livelihood that she wasn't, so I prayed the answer wasn't 'no'. She looked up, surprised that I had spoken, I guess. Or perhaps it was my impatient tone; I was getting rather…anxious. As was my demon counterpart…

"N-no…Kiba-kun is over there…"

I sent a cursory glance towards the area she had indicated, and met "Kiba's" angry glare. So that was where the bloodlust was coming from; he wasn't concealing it very well, and probably even _meant _for me to notice it. His dog was snarling at me too, but keeping its distance, as if it instinctively knew I had an animal friend of my own close by. I almost sneered; _don't you touch her, _was what he was probably trying to tell me with that glare. She must have told him to stay behind.

I exhaled, letting pent up worry flow out. As much as it would annoy me to have dog-boy monitor my every move, it was somehow a relief to know I was being watched. It would be far easier to control myself knowing there was someone else around keeping tabs on her.

"_Good._" I said, mostly to myself. Then I turned my attention to her.

"I'm going to be very _honest_ with you, Hyuuga-sama."

I must have been glaring at her, because I could see visible fear in those milky white eyes.

"If I ever catch you alone…I'll probably do something awful to you." I paused for effect. "I might even kill you." I added, as an afterthought. The scarier I was to her, the better. It seemed to work, as she visibly recoiled from me.

"So it is in your _best interest_ to stay away from me. I don't want you following me around anymore."

I stepped closer, making sure I was looking down at her so she got the full affect of my glare.

"_Do you understand_?"

Stepping closer had been a mistake; her smell was intoxicating. My vision blurred for an instant, but the bloodlust emanating off of the dog boy helped me keep my composure. It reminded me that people were watching; that there would be massive repercussions in store for me if I let myself slip. But there was still a look of pure horror on her face…Hinata didn't know how much safer she was with him around.

"…I…ahh…" Her voice was soft and delicate, almost too low for me to hear. Her dark plum hair danced in the wind and washed her scent all over me; being this close for too long wasn't good.

"_I SAID_ do you understand??"

She looked up at me now, seeming conflicted for some reason.

**Just tell me you understand, damn it. **

"…You're…_dangerous_." She said after what seemed like an eternity, looking downward; as if it wasn't so blatantly obvious that she needed to say it aloud. Well, good. You get it. Have a cookie.

"…b-but…"

**There is a _'but'_? **

"…but…" Her inner conflict seemed to turn into resolve, and she looked up to meet my glare, with a scared yet somehow defiant look in her eyes. "…you're not…_bad_."

Someone was laughing inside of me.

…and then everything was suddenly quiet in my little world. The laughter faded away. And in my mind, there's never a quiet moment.

Sometimes the noise is me thinking, sometimes it's Shukaku, sometimes it's both, but in here, its never so silent…never this quiet. For a second I was mesmerized by it, I felt strangely out of place inside my own body.

"…N-no…I don't th-think…that you're bad." Her voice broke the void for an instant, like a single melodic chord echoing in my mind.

I don't know what it was about those words that compelled me to stare at her. I took a good look at her, and I realized it was the first time I'd really seen her. The whole time I'd been trying to get away from her, I'd been preoccupied by other thoughts that didn't belong to my own mind…but right now, for reasons that escaped me, that part of me was dead silent.

"…You're a fool." I said to her, as I studied her child like face.

Embarrassed now, and blushing, her wonderful blood bloomed on her cheeks. Those eyes weren't just white, they held many strange colors, like oil on water (as un-appealing as that sounds, its what they most resembled). Her hair had so many dark hues it seemed to shimmer even in the dim streetlights. She said something, I saw her lips move. Four syllables, her mouth molded out her words, but my world was silent. A lock of that dark hair swept onto her face, and before I knew what I was doing, I brushed it away with my hand. I let it linger there, against that pale translucent skin where bloody roses bloomed…

I hadn't noticed the moment her scent became too overwhelming for me to handle, and made me grip her shoulders…

…The noise returned. The footsteps of the crowd, the bark of that dog, her heart beat and my own, and I woke up. I stopped myself, just before I could touch her lips. A sharp gasp of air left her mouth and brushed against my own. The urge to grab _something other_ than her shoulders was almost unbearable, but I fought it with everything I had.

_…so close… XO_

He was right for once. It had been, too close…

"…And…you're _wrong_." I said to her (and to myself) before releasing her. Or, more accurately, pushing her away.

"I'll definitely kill you if I see you again."

Hopefully, she believed it. I was starting to believe it, if only so I could avoid doing what I thought Shukaku wanted…

_**Hinata**_

_Gaara-sama, I'm sorry I was foolish. I should have noticed…_

I called out to him, trying to sound braver and more confident than I felt.

_Gaara-sama, it was totally my fault, please don't leave. _

He seemed to hear me, and he looked like he was extra-mad…His eyes were wide open, with a kind of crazy-mad stare that I had seen only in cheesy yakuza movies. But I was still kind of…I don't know, I guess relieved or happy or anxious or some weird combination of the three to see him.

_Gaara-sama, Please don't tell my father, I have a feeling he's going to shoot me._

But he stopped walking away. That meant he wanted to talk, right? Or at least, he would listen to me, right? Or maybe it was a trap…_ahh don't loose your resolve, Hinata!_

"Ah…I'm s-sorry…for…for being so…so foolish and…and not…"

He interrupted me mid sentence and sent me the scariest glare in the world (it really was, I think he patented it or something).

"_Are you here by yourself_?"

_Gaarasamaimsorrybecauseflakjfuhdofisodjfoisjd_

His voice was strained and angry, like it had been the last time, and my carefully planned out apology became mush in my head. Those intense green eyes seemed dark with an emotion even my byakugan couldn't discern, but it was something close to anger…and maybe…restraint of some kind. Whatever it was made him seem very unstable to me.

"Umm…No…Kiba-kun is over there…"

I motioned to the place behind me I imagined he would be, expecting Gaara's eyes to flame with rage. _Let your friend follow you, huh? Well then I guess I have to go to the trouble of glaring at you both with my patented death stare! Rawr! _(Does Gaara roar? He seems like the type that…actually, no he doesn't…but _he did_ growl that one time…).

But that's not what happened at all. His shoulders relaxed considerably, and he seemed to be almost relieved that Kiba was glaring at him from behind my back.

"Good." He sounded like he meant that, too. The way his face seemed to grow softer for that instant gave me shivers again (as in the _good kind_ of shivers, the ones I'm _totally not supposed to have_ for anyone except...well…), but they were gone as soon as he looked at me again.

"I'm going to be very honest with you, Hyuuga-sama."

His voice was lovely too, smooth and deep, but it gave me shivers for a whole other reason. It was quiet and somehow dense, like there was something unpleasant lurking beneath it. To be quite honest, it scared me. A lot.

"You're probably wondering why I asked you if you were alone."

I was actually more preoccupied with praying that I wasn't about to be shot today, but now that I thought about it, it was rather odd.

"It's because I don't trust myself to be alone with you. _And you shouldn't either_."

There was something ominous and dark about the way he said it that made me believe it. I gulped.

"If I ever catch you alone…"

He paused, an emotion resembling shame flashed across his face, and then was quickly replaced with resolve.

"…I'll probably do something awful to you."

Everything fell away from me at that moment; it was just me and Gaara, in our own little dark world. I prayed my legs weren't shaking, and that I looked braver than I felt.

"I might even kill you."

I should have been running away the instant I heard that. I don't know why I didn't; maybe it was one of those things where I couldn't move my legs because I was so scared.

"So it is in your _best interest_ to stay away from me. I don't want you following me around anymore."

Gaara stepped forward, and instantly grew like, a foot taller. His head blocked what little light we were getting from the street lamp, and the darkness created an immediate effect on his appearance. His dark red hair looked black in the absence of light, and Gaara's bright green eyes were the only things I could see very clearly. A pair of gleaming eyes looking out at you from the darkness? It was something from a scary children's story. Only it was real, and it was right in front of me.

"Do you understand?" His voice was a harsh whisper, his tone rough and no longer as polite as it had once been.

"I…ah…"I wanted to say, 'I understand'. I always _want_ to say things. I just never can…because I know the second I say so, he's going to walk away from me and probably never come back. And some part of me I guess didn't want that to happen. Is it because I'm ashamed? No, no…its because of those eyes.

"I SAID do you understand?"

Those eyes…that look so much like mine. Eyes that reflect shame and perhaps even fear in the deepest darkest depths of their pupils, the eyes of someone who wants to change so badly…but feels they can't.

"You're…dangerous." I said something that would probably please him enough not to yell at me again, but I didn't feel quite so…right when I said it.

He looked like he was happy with it, and his glare softened.

There were a few things I knew for sure. One was there was some part of Gaara that really wanted to hurt me.

"…b-but…"

Another was that he scared me worse than anything I'd ever known.

"…but…"

One more was…that there was another part of him that didn't want to hurt me, and in fact was probably trying to protect me by telling me to stay away. And that part of him reminded me of myself somehow.

"…You're not…bad. N-no…I don't th-think…that you're bad."

I think I had somewhere along the line passed the point of being too scared to care, and I felt almost confident when I said it. I could imagine how all his life, he must have been told how dangerous and evil he was, just like how I'd always been called a pathetic failure.

And how great it had felt the day someone had stood up for me and told me I wasn't a failure. That he felt I could change…I had thanked him in my heart that day. Maybe Gaara—

"You're a fool."

…nevermind.

But something was different now. His eyes weren't glaring at me anymore, no…now there seemed to something softer, even childlike about them. His eyes narrowed, but not in anger; it was to study me. A childlike curiosity…it seemed very out of place in Gaara's eyes, and made me very uneasy. I could feel my heart beat faster under such scrutiny, and I could feel my cheeks start to burn. Why was he looking at me that way? He'd called me a fool; was it because he'd never met anyone so stupid? _Now studying the Stupidus Hinatus, quite a rare species of idiot…_

A breeze sent my long hair up over my shoulders and into my face; I should really get it cut soon. I sent up a hand to pull my hair-curtains out of my face, but I felt Gaara do it for me. I felt his hand sort of brush against my skin before it fell away, almost…fondly?

Then he had me again, and then his face was close to mine, and I was so surprised I almost screamed, but all that came out was a small burst of surprised air. I was a helpless little doll compared to the strong arms that were holding me…

"…and you're wrong." He said quietly, right into my face, so only I could hear him. He let me go, and then walked away.

I was frozen in place for a good minute or so, absolutely shaken. He had had me so completely, he could have…I shivered, and this time I wasn't sure whether it was because the thought scared me to death or excited me in some perverse way. But I knew it was only a warning meant for me to take his threat seriously. That I had been a fool, and he was bad, and he was dangerous, and if he had wanted to, he could have killed me.

But maybe it was because I was still such a fool that I didn't quite buy it. If he had been so evil, would he have warned me? Well maybe he was holding back for the sake of his country, but…

Well it didn't matter much anymore, I reminded myself. He was leaving today, and I'd probably never see him again. Something in me felt a little broken over this, but I let it fade.

**Gaara**

I glided away, Shukaku whining like a kid wanting candy the whole time. The only thing that was keeping me from breaking down was the pressure of dog-boy's eyes on me and the crowd, and the dangling hope that I would soon be far, far away from this crazy village.

Far away from her, and her smell…her face was etched into my mind now. Involuntarily, I found myself breathing in deeply, trying to make one last memory of her scent…

But there was only burning instead. I found that I welcomed it this time thought, knowing that Temari had probably somehow or other picked up her burning smell again. Good; I could get her, we could go, this could all be far behind me before I had a chance to get too riled up…

…I sometimes look back to this moment and wonder if it had been Temari who turned the corner. It would have saved me a lot of grief, that's for sure.

But it wasn't Temari who I met leaving Konoha.

"…Gaara-sama?"

It was the Shadow user who had fought (and technically beaten) Temari in the Chuunin exam two years back. His name eluded me…something-maru, was it?

"Oi. Hinata-sama and Temari are looking for you."

He had a cigarette in his mouth. No wonder I had thought he was Temari, he smelled just like the way she did after Chuunin meetings. Just the way she did. Like the smell had sunk into her clothes, it even lingered on her breath—

…_Wait._


End file.
